During the past several years, considerable effort has been devoted to various systems for authenticating the identity of a person who is about to engage in a credit transaction. Considering an exemplary application for such systems, in the course of the present trend toward a cashless or checkless society, credit transactions are frequently concluded between strangers on the basis of a credit card or other identification device. As widely recognized, not infrequently credit cards (the term being used collectively herein) are diverted to fall into the hands of unscrupulous persons with a resulting substantial loss. A major portion of such losses could be avoided by positive identification of the person bearing the credit card at the time the card is used as a basis for the extension of credit.
Various prior proposals have been made for identifying an assigned card bearer, e.g. photographs on the cards, physical descriptions on the cards, code techniques for variously testing or identifying the user, and so on. However, in general, such prior proposals have either involved relatively expensive or complex structures, or have imposed undue burdens upon one or both of the parties actually consummating the transaction. As a consequence, a considerable need exists for an effective, inexpensive, and simple system for authenticating the identification of a person entering a credit transaction on the basis of a presented credit card.
Traditionally, binding commitments of a person have been evidenced by his signature. In fact, it is conventional for a signature to evidence even very small credit transactions. In addition to evidencing the commitment, to some extent the signature has also served as a basis for identification. That is, in the context considered above, efforts have been made to obtain a comparison between the executed signature and a recorded signature, as borne on a credit card, to confirm the identity of the signing person. Unfortunately, the comparison is frequently performed by persons with little or no training or expertise in handwriting analysis who often must perform the comparison under extremely adverse circumstances. As a consequence, this widespread procedure is questionably effective in confirming identification and deterring the improper use of credit cards.
Efforts to improve the reliability of the written signature as a means of identification have been suggested that are somewhat separate and apart from the executed form. That is, it has been proposed to characterize the motion pattern of a pen point during the execution of a signature in the form of data to confirm the identity of the signer. Specifically, such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,517, issued Oct. 17, 1972, to James W. Dyche and 3,145,367, issued Aug. 18, 1964, to H. D. Crane.
As previously proposed, characterizing the motion pattern of a pen point to confirm the identity of a singer has generally involved rather complex and expensive apparatus. In that regard, a need exists for a system which may be embodied in a simple, small and relatively inexpensive unit for dynamically authenticating a person executing a signature. In that regard, and in accordance herewith, relative speeds of the pen point have been found to afford effective criteria. That is, in general, the system of the present invention involves relating the speed or velocity of a pen point to characterize or identify a signature. The system hereof may be embodied in units for use with any of a variety of writing implements, without criticality as to signature location, which units are relatively simple, inexpensive and convenient in use. In simple embodiments the operating philosophy is based upon the premise that forgeries are usually executed in a slow and deliberate manner or at least at a different speed than the true signatory, which information is not generally available. More elaborate embodiments incorporate additional structure for deriving other characteristic identification data.